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Monday, April 22, 2013

A Million Reasons to Celebrate!

Okay, so two days away from Bloglovin and I have 44 unread blog posts?! Sorry guys; I need to call that a loss. There's no way I can catch up there.

This weekend was one of those that was absolutely filled, but in the best possible way. Matt and I jumped in the car and left town the minute I was out of work.

Only two days, and I took up half the suitcase. Can you catch sight of the stowaway?

We had a 4+ hour drive to Daytona to celebrate all kinds of occasions. We listened to CNN on XM the entire drive in order to keep abreast of the manhunt in Boston, took a half hour break to eat dinner, and returned to the car to hear that the suspect had been apprehended! (That quickly became yet another reason to celebrate this weekend...I'll get to the rest shortly.)

I was seriously ecstatic; we spent the rest of the weekend trying to glean what information we could while being surrounded by old friends.

The boys surrounding the groom-to-be...I'm loving all the primary colors.

The first reason for our visit was our friends' engagement party. Secondarily, a handful of people were celebrating birthdays.

I am a sucker for sugar.

And the final, overwhelmingly fantastic reason for our trip was that our friend TG had just returned from his second tour of the Middle East, unscathed. Obviously, we had a lot to celebrate.

The ladies with the bride-to-be

Despite being up a good twenty hours Friday, I peeled myself out of bed and went for a short, leisurely run Saturday. I like running at Mark's because his street is a circle, and the main road the loop connects to is the connecting point for many other looping streets. It's impossible to get lost, and you can add whatever mileage you like. (I like running in neighborhoods, so that's a bonus, too.) Still, I was exhausted and it was threatening rain. I only did 1.52 miles, but I'm glad I did any at all.

Perfectly overcast. I got my wish for one more cold front!

Running while on a short, intense trip is hard, and it takes a lot out of me. This run was a humbling moment; I need to start eking up my weekly mileage a bit if I want to be in good enough shape to start marathon training in July.

Saturday we had the engagement party. I swear, you'd think I'd be used to talking nonstop, but catching up with old friends and Mark's family left me almost voiceless!

Appropriately shocked and amused.

If you aren't easily offended and are a little bored with Apples to Apples, I can't recommend this game enough.

After the party, we went to World of Beer (our favorite!) to have a couple drinks and play a round of Cards Against Humanity before frequenting our traditional dinner establishment of choice when we're all together: Steak and Shake. We're usually there are 3am, so it was different to be there at the same time as other customers.

Our age showing, we called it quits by midnight. We stayed for brunch Sunday, then hit the road. Rain and traffic kept us from fulfilling any kind of errands, and I was not ready for the rude awakening that was the work week this morning.

We took up two tables; at the second, a more appropriate game of Apples to Apples was played.

Over all, it was a great weekend, despite the lack of running. This time of year is insane. I have the DC trip next week, then a million festivities for 8th grade "celebration" (commencement)...but once May comes to an end, I know life will return to normal.

As normal as it can get, anyway...

Getting a little crazy.

What time of year is busiest for you?Do you run when you're physically feeling run down?When's the last time you got to have a reunion with your close friends of yore?